Pretty lies, the ugly truth
by whenthemarshmallowmettheslayer
Summary: A series of drabbles focusing on: Harry's abuse and how it should have affected him, Harry standing up for himself, or Harry thinking or acting like Slytherin.


**Chapter One: Don't assume. Because it will make an ass of you and me.**

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Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought him, chocolate raspberry with chopped nuts.

"What's up?" Hagrid asked him as Harry finished taking another bite.

Harry jerked his head up in surprise. "Nothing," Harry lied automatically.

After Harry finished his ice cream they stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote. When they had left the shop, he asked, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"

"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know - not knowin' about Quidditch!"

"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's. "-and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in."

"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were - he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh.

Anyway what does he know about it some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles - look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"

"So what is Quidditch?" Harry asked. He was ready to change the subject from being about his aunt and back to the wizarding world.

"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like - like soccer in the Muggle world - everyone follows Quidditch - played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls - sorta hard ter explain the rules."

Was Quidditch what inspired the thing about witches and brooms? Harry was tempted to ask but instead asked about what Slytherin and Hufflepuff were. "And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"

"Two of Hogwart's houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but -"

"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily. While Harry had been smarter than Dudley it didn't make him a smart kid. After all the majority of the populace of England was smarter than Harry's cousin.

"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."

Harry who had been not-quite-running but as close as it got to running without running so he could catch up to Hagrid who was just leisurely walking stopped in his tracks.

His parent's murderer had been in Slytherin. He had attended Hogwarts. The school that Harry was going to attend. That his parents had attended. He would walk the hallways, go to the same classes as all three had. Harry felt a mixture of emotions.

He didn't want to be in Slytherin if they were all bad and the man responsible for him living with the Dursley had been there.

Except (Harry would have swallowed if his throat was so dry all the sudden) maybe not all Slytherins were bad? One, the likelihood of that was low. Two, Harry knew what is was like to be judged by one's book cover. To be treated ugly, to be bullied because of people taking one person's word over finding out themselves.  
While Dudley and his gang had managed to scare off all the other kids from being friendly towards Harry they hadn't been able to scare off the teachers because, well they were kids and teachers were adults; Harry, however, managed that with his magic. The first day of school Harry been held back in class because of something. (The reason Harry had forgotten after he had to bring a note to the Dursleys after what he had done.) He had gotten upset at something the Math teacher had said and he had made her hair turn blue.

It hadn't mattered that the shade of blue was beautiful. Harry had been sent to Dursley's house (The Dursley's home was never Harry's home. Home was somewhere you felt safe, where your loved ones were. The Dursley's house was neither of those things to Harry.) with a note for turning his teacher's hair blue. The next day at school the teachers had all heard what a terrible child Harry was. He had been 'bad' to one teacher and every adult that worked at Harry and Dudley's school thought he was bad kid; the one you kept other children from so not to infect them.

Yes. Harry's parents murderer had been in Slytherin but Harry lived with the Dursleys. That didn't make him a terrible person like they were. Just like Voldemort being in Slytherin House didn't make the house henceforth tainted.

-  
When Harry arrived at Hogwarts, the sorting hat told him he would be great in Slytherin. Harry decided to be sorted in Slytherin because he knew he wasn't a bad person-a freak- so, maybe, he could get others to see not all Slytherins were bad.

It took almost a year before Snape finally saw what was in front of him. James Potter's son was not spoiled nor like his father. He was more Lily's son than his father and Harry had been abused. Snape, after being told by Dumbledore that Harry had to stay with abusive Dursleys because of blood wards went to Mcgonagall. While they admittedly had differences Mcgonagall would never allow a child to be abused. Not even the great Dumbledore could fight that tag team.

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 **A/N: I own nothing. Crossposted on archiveofourown.**

 **1.) First off, there's a lot of Harry stands up for himself fics where Harry's a complete brat. This is not one of those fics. Harry will just act like himself but will think, act more like how an abused kid would.**

 **2.) This is beta read/co-authored by howlingstiles. A lot of thanks goes to her/him? (I actually don't know what gender howlingstiles is...I'm pretty sure I'm a terrible person for not knowing that.) It was his/her's chats with me that made me write on this subject. She/he also stayed up with me last night (and early morning) to help me go over this so I could post this today. So again, a lot of thanks goes to howlingstiles.**

 **3.) Before anyone says that it was technically Dumbledore not Voldemort that put Harry with the Dursleys just remember Harry doesn't learn that until later on. So of course the logical person to blame was Voldemort; who did play a hand with Harry living with the Dursleys (because he murdered James and Lily) but he didn't actually leave Harry with his magic hating relatives.**

 **4.) This chapter/drabble was based on the fact Harry was treated like a leper because of his relatives making everyone believe he was a bad kid (or in Dudley's case threatening anyone from being nice to Harry with his gang) and I kinda found it weird that Harry in the books just took Hagrid's word instead of finding out himself. I mean sure Draco was being a prat and Voldemort was in Slytherin but still... You can't just judge a large group by just two people. So this is what inspired this chapter/drabble.**

 **5.) I am open to suggestions for this story. You can comment here or pm me on my tumblr account, whenthemarshmallowmettheslayer.**


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